Lakes of the Clouds Hut 1855.4

Unfortunately someone who did work-for-stay with us was snoring incredibly loud so Julia almost couldn't sleep. Our today's goal was to make it as close as possible to Mt Washington because the weather is supposed to be pretty good which is almost necessary to summit the mountain. We headed out at 6 and made pretty good miles before breakfast because the terrain was quite flat. The trail led us down to a parking lot, so we had a much higher and tougher climb afterwards leading us in direction of Mount Washington. On the way to the Lakes of the Clouds Hut we stopped by the Mizpah Spring Hut for lunch. Unfortunately they only had one bowl of a super tasty meat soup left :( The bottomless soup would have been a feast!!!
We only took a short break and checked for the weather report posted in the hut. It looked good for today and tomorrow, so we can shoot for Mount Washington :) The last hike of the day went pretty well on the presidential ridge leading over to the Lakes of the Clouds Hut right at the bottom of Mount Washington. From there we had beautiful views over the ridges, valleys and peaks in the distance. It was especially impressive because we had it all to ourselves, no other hikers were around.
The more challenging the hike, the more rewarding is the view. That was true in this case. When we arrived at the hut at around 7 all work-for-stay spots were already gone and also "the dungeon" - a kind of bunk below the hut which is tiny and cold - was full. So the AMC person in charge offered us, like others before, to stay on the floor of the dining room for 15$. We had no other choice but to accept it even though it was a rip-off.

The temperature fell down to around 0 degrees at night due to high winds. So we were glad that we didn't have to tent out in that cold.Read more